W.H.: Woodward not threatened

For the second time in a week, White House press secretary Jay Carney said the Washington Post's Bob Woodward is dead wrong -- this time about alleging that an Obama aide threatened him.

Carney said he reviewed an email exchange between Gene Sperling and Woodward and concluded that Sperling was being "incredibly respectful" and referred to Woodward as a friend.

"You cannot read those emails and come away with the impression that Gene was threatening anybody," Carney said at a press briefing Thursday.

Sperling wrote in the email exchange published by POLITICO that Woodward would "regret" writing a column questioning the White House version of the origins of sequestration. Woodward suggested the threat was indicative of a thin-skinned White House unaccustomed to being challenged.

Carney said Thursday that in his previous job as a reporter, administration officials often gave him an earful when they didn't agree with his reporting, and he said such back-and-forth is routine in the naturally adversarial relationship between the White House and the press.

As for the points of fact, Carney said he stands by his assertion that Woodward was "willfully wrong" when he claimed in his column that Obama was "moving the goal posts" by insisting that revenues be included in a deal to replace the sequester.

"I have enormous respect for the work that Bob Woodward is famous for," he said noting that most every reporter including himself was inspired by his Watergate reporting and the movie that depicted it, "All the President's Men." "But we had a factual disagreement that we stand by."